


The First Time He's Really Been Happy

by somethin_random (wordsaremyfaith)



Category: The OC
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-01
Updated: 2004-05-04
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4607511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsaremyfaith/pseuds/somethin_random
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unabashed fluff, set sometime during season one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written without having seen the first few episodes. I fudged some very minor details. Thanks to my friend Faye for the beta.

  
He woke up that first morning on the floor of the poolhouse. For a long moment, he stared up at the ceiling, wondering where he was. Oh, right. Newport. On the floor of his rich lawyer’s poolhouse. 24 hours sure changed a lot, he reflected, checking his battered old watch. 9 AM. They were sure to be up by now. He should probably go over to the house.

Stretching, he grabbed his worn wifebeater from where it lay on the floor and pulled it over his head. All right. No point in delaying the inevitable.

He sighed and headed over to the house.

***

Ryan remembers that morning like it was yesterday. Mostly, he remembers staring up at the smooth white ceiling pensively, wondering how he had ended up on the floor, and what Sandy would think if he saw him lying there. Wondering what was going to happen to him. He could never have predicted the last seven months. Never in a million years.

He smiles to himself, on the floor again. He’s such a restless sleeper that somehow he seems to wake up on the cold tile every morning. But this morning is different. This morning, he’s got a partner in crime. A beautiful, curly-haired partner still sleeping next to him.

Ryan watches Seth sleep for probably half an hour, and he could continue all day, but his eyes fall on the time. Nine AM. Just like that first morning.

“Seth.”

“Mmm?”

“Wake up.” When Seth doesn’t stir, Ryan leans over and prods him. “Come on, get up!”

In the seven months he’s been here, this is the first time his almost-brother (though he doesn’t think along those lines anymore) has ever stayed over. He doesn’t know why, but he knows it’s an experience that needs to be repeated. As many times as possible.

Seth had been so excited last night. He’d been practically jumping up and down.

“Dude. We get to have a sleepover!”

“Would you please stop calling it that?”

“Seriously, though, man, this is going to be so awesome. Think of all the possibilities.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively at Ryan.

“You’d better be careful what you say around your parents.”

“Don’t worry so much, Ryan. Come on. Aren’t you at least a little bit excited? Be honest.”

“Yes, of course I am, but I also know that you’re not always as subtle as you think you are. You’re the one who didn’t want to tell your parents. So either tell them, or learn to hide it.” This was a long speech coming from Ryan. Seth’s influence had been rubbing off on him a bit lately.

“Okay,” Seth sulked, leaning in for a quick kiss, but Ryan wouldn’t let him.

“I mean it. Not while your parents are home.”

When they had gotten home earlier that day, they had cornered Sandy and Kirsten in the kitchen.

“Mom, Dad, can I sleep over in the poolhouse with Ryan tonight? Please?”

Ryan gave his best impression of an innocent look.

“I don’t see why not,” Sandy replied, just as Kirsten said, “Sure.”

“Awesome!” Seth yelled, practically dragging Ryan from the kitchen.

***

Grinning, Ryan pulls himself out of his reverie. Doesn’t Seth know it’s impossible not to be excited around him? His mood is contagious, and Ryan likes it. It’s the first time he’s really been happy.

The boy next to him finally begins to stir. “Ryan?” he asks, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “What time is it?”

“Nine-fifteen. Time to get up.”

“Oh. Okay.” Seth sits up easily, hugging the blankets to his chest. “So what now?” he asks sleepily, and Ryan can’t resist stealing a kiss. Seth’s lips are soft against his own. His mouth opens to let his boyfriend’s tongue in. He could stay here, in this moment, forever. But then he remembers all that’s been on his mind lately, and pulls reluctantly away.

“Seth,” he says, “We’ve gotta tell them.”

“Why? I like this the way it is.”

“I don’t. I hate lying and sneaking around. Especially to the only adults who’ve ever treated me decently.”

“But think how much we could take advantage of not telling them. This, for example. Do you think my parents will ever let me stay over again if we tell them? Uh, I don’t think so. But, see, if we don’t tell them, I could probably stay here almost every night, and you know what that means…”

“Seth,” Ryan interrupts. “Of course I know what that means. I’ve got hormones just like you do. And of course I want to spend as much time as possible alone with you. But I can’t do that. I can’t go on lying to your parents. I want them to trust me and accept us, and the only way to do that is to tell them now.”

For a long minute, they stare each other down.

***

Ryan thinks back to their first kiss. The first time he knew that he loved Seth, and that Seth loved him.

They were alone in the house, playing video games. Saturday night, one month ago. Sandy and Kirsten had gone out, and they were hanging out and fooling around.

“Hanging out with you is so much better than hanging out with Summer,” Seth told Ryan. “She would never play video games with me.”

“Why did you break up with her, anyway?” asked Ryan lightly.

Seth swallowed almost audibly. “She just… it wasn’t… Do you ever think you want something , and then when you get it, you realize that you’ve really wanted something else all along?”

“Seth, what are you talking about?”

“Well…um…after a while I kinda realized that… I didn’t want to be with Summer… that I’m in love with… someone else.” Seth’s lack of volume at the end of that sentence started Ryan, who had never heard his friend be anything less than boisterous.

“Really? With who?”

Seth swallowed again. “No one.”

“Seth! That is the biggest cop-out! You can’t say something like that and then not tell me!” Ryan knew he sounded like an indignant Seth, but he didn’t care. After all, he’d learned from the best.

“You,” Seth whispered, so softly that Ryan almost hadn’t heard him. He looked at Seth – really looked at him. And there it was: the love, the passion, the desire, that he hadn’t even been able to admit to himself, reflected in Seth’s eyes.

“Seth,” he whispered. And then he was leaning in to meet the other boy’s lips, and he was realizing how long he had wanted this, how right they were for each other, and he melted into Seth’s arms…

And then the door opened, and they broke hastily apart, redfaced.

***

Now they are in the Cohens’ kitchen, and they are standing in front of his almost-parents, who are also his almost-parents-in-law (talk about confusing) and Seth is holding his hand. And Ryan is letting Seth talk, because they are his parents and he wants to do this on Seth’s terms.

“Mom, Dad, Ryan and I have something to tell you…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They tell the parents. Kirsten’s POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that typically people tend to work on Saturdays, but I didn’t catch that in my original story and I was most concerned with keeping this one true to what I’d already written. So please ignore that little mistake. This was originally sad, but then I decided it needed to not be. Everyone deserves a happy ending, and I couldn’t stand making pretty people upset. Also, I’ve never written Kirsten before, so she may be a bit OOC. Thank you to A for the beta.

Kirsten wakes up early with the strange, nagging feeling that today is going to be different. Different, and huge. Though she doesn’t really want to get out of bed yet, she’s hungry, so she goes downstairs to make coffee. About two hours later, after she’s eaten and come back up to bed to read, Sandy finally awakens.

“What are you doing up?” he asks sleepily.

“I’ve been up for two hours already. Just couldn’t sleep,” she shrugs.

“Oh.” He blinks at her a few times, still in a dream-state.

“I made coffee, if you want it.”

“Coffee? Really?” That gets him up in a hurry.

“Yes, it’s in the kitchen. I left it on for you.”

“Thanks, honey. You’re the best.” He gives her a quick kiss and rushes in the direction of the coffee. A few minutes later, fed up with her book, she follows.

He’s reading the paper when she comes downstairs. “Are the boys up yet?”

“Not yet, as far as I can tell. They’ll probably come staggering in around noon and demand food.”

“Probably.” And he’s back to his paper.

A little while later, the door opens and they come in, looking surprisingly awake. And… holding hands?

They see Sandy and Kirsten and stop, facing them. Ryan looks calm as usual, but Seth’s hands are shaking, making Ryan’s right hand shake, too.

“Mom, Dad,” Seth begins, “Ryan and I have something we need to tell you.”

Sandy puts down the paper. Kirsten waits expectantly.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Ryan adds. Surprised, they sit.

The boys look at each other, unsure where to begin. As if by some unspoken cue, Seth is the one to speak.

“Well, see, I, we, I mean, that is…” Seth is so nervous he can’t even ramble coherently! What’s going on?

“What Seth’s trying to say is –” Ryan cuts in.

“No, dude, it’s okay. I want to do this myself.” There’s another silence before he continues. “What I’m trying to tell you – and completely failing at, by the way – is that I’m in love with Ryan.”

Ryan smiles. “And I’m in love with Seth.”

Sandy gapes at them, but Kirsten regains her composture quickly. “Okay.”

Now it’s Seth’s turn to look stunned. “Okay??”

“Well, what do you expect me to say? I can’t say that this is completely out of the blue to me.”

Sandy looks at her. “It isn’t?”

She shrugs. “No. I always suspected… I just didn’t think that my suspicions were accurate.”

Seth is still staring at her nervously. “Um, but, are you, I mean, upset, at all, or, um, what exactly are you thinking, Mom?”

“I’m happy for you,” she says simply, delighting in the way her son’s face lights up at this. He squeezes Ryan’s hand tightly.

“But this means that the same rules apply as with any girl,” her husband adds. “All doors stay open, and no more sleepovers.”

The boys grin at each other. “That’s all?”

“Unless you can think of something else,” Sandy answers.

“Okay, well, Mom, Dad, it’s been fun, but we’re going to go swim now, so, see you later.” She can feel Seth’s relief at having gotten that over with. He grabs two bagels, hands one to Ryan, and drags him back out to the poolhouse.

***

Back upstairs, she tries to get back to her book, but keeps getting distracted by the conversation she overhears out the window.

“See? I told you they’d be okay with it.”

“I don’t know how ‘okay’ Dad is.”

“Give him time to get used to us, Seth.”

“Besides, that no-more-sleepovers rule? I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Come on, aren’t you happier now that they know?”

Seth’s admittance is grudging at best. “I guess so.”

There’s a pause. Then:

“Seth! Give that back!” The sounds of laughter and splashing permeate the air, and Kirsten smiles to herself. As much as she’d rather Seth be with a girl, she’s never seen (or heard) him this happy. And if Ryan’s the one who makes him that happy, then she’s happy for them, her boys. Her two sons.

She picks up the book again, and continues right where she left off.


End file.
